A clean, reliable and ample water supply is one of the cornerstones on which any successful economy is built.

When it comes to selecting a location for a plant or large industry, it is as important as broadband, roads, electricity and labour supply, and yet only now are we waking up to its importance in Ireland.

In the early 1970s, when the IDA targeted Cork harbour as an area into which to attract pharmaceutical manufacturers, Cork county council constructed a major water supply scheme for the area with a potential to deliver 135,000 cubic metres a day.

This investment, along with the development of other infrastructure, has seen Cork harbour develop as the centre of the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland . . . a sector that accounts for around 40bn of Irish exports.

Similarly, the secure supply of clean water was a key factor in the growth of the industrial mix we see in the South Dublin/Kildare area where Wyeth and Intel have chosen to locate.

A confluence of immediate and longerterm factors threatens our water supply, including the impact of climate change on water resources, problems with meeting increased demand from a growing population, and the eutrophication of our lakes, rivers and streams.

Threats to the water table from one-off housing and bad agricultural practices are placing our previously ample supply under even greater pressure.

It is a given that this precious resource must be appreciated and preserved and yet as a society we are doing little to give it a value and encourage its conservation. If you don't pay for a resource, how much do you value it and how much will you waste?

For water to be managed effectively as a resource, its use by consumers must be measured and charged for accordingly. Metering has an important part to play in encouraging water conservation and minimising waste, in addressing leakage and in reducing demand for water, especially at peak times. Without adequate water metering, water wastage and water shortages are set to be ongoing challenges.

You cannot conserve a resource if you don't even know how much of it is being used or squandered.

Similarly, it is difficult to change consumer behaviour unless you align it with their pockets and implement the principle of user/polluter pays. For example, when Dun Laoghaire Rathdown county council introduced its 'Pay by Weight' system of collecting environmental charges in January 2005, the council's dependency on landfill sites dropped by 30% in the first six months.

Local authorities are in the process of metering all non-domestic customers.

As the metering programme is implemented, businesses will be charged for both the water they use and the waste water that they produce. This is in line with the user-pays principle with which Chambers Ireland concurs. We believe the business community should pay for the service it receives, once it is provided on a not-for-profit basis.

Chambers are adamant that, in the longer term, most customers must pay water and waste water charges on the basis of a metered supply. But, even if the government continues to refuse to impose water charges on domestic users, it must meet its commitment to cover this cost from the Exchequer, something it is currently not doing.

Without domestic water metering, we cannot know how much the government actually owes local authorities for domestic water. This is why Chambers are calling for water meters to be a pre-requisite in any planning application for developments which will require water supply.

Until there is universal metering of all water consumers, there will be no prospect of the full application of the polluter/user pays principle, with or without government subvention of domestic users.

The Minister for the Environment recently gave the go-ahead for a 60m expansion of the Ballymore Eustace plant, which will increase its annual output by just over 16 cubic metres. We welcome this investment but must point out that it is not the only way to address our water shortages.

In Copenhagen, a city comparable in size to Dublin, the water supply company managed to reduce the city's water consumption by 10 cubic metres over five years, using a range of initiatives including domestic metering, despite a population growth of 20,000 over the same period.

The Copenhagen case shows how much can be achieved by promoting a change to more responsible habits.

A clean, reliable water supply is one of our most precious resources. Unless we begin to appreciate and protect it, we stand to jeopardise an often overlooked advantage that Ireland possesses in securing foreign direct investment.

John Dunne is chief executive of Chambers Ireland which has 60 member chambers representing over 13,000 businesses on the island of Ireland